October 21, 2016
HHF Planners
733 Bishop Street, Suite 2590
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Ronald A. Sato, Senior Associate
Aloha Mr. Sato,
The board of directors of Hika‘alani would like to express its ongoing and unanimous support for the Draft Kawainui-Hāmākua Complex Master Plan as released in the EISPN of September 2016.
We are a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of land, culture, and identity at Kawainui. We are educators, scholars, and practitioners of Hawaiian culture with deep-rooted ties to our Kailua home. As such, we are especially appreciative of the plan’s continued, cool-headed recognition of the critical role that a permanent Hawaiian cultural presence must play in the stewardship of Kawainui if the now much-degraded marsh is to become, again, the thriving, life-giving piko of our ahupua‘a.
We have begun to put actions to our words by hiring Kaleomanu‘iwa Wong (one of the new generation of navigator-captains of the Hōkūle‘a, a fluent speaker of the Hawaiian language, a gifted orator, a lifetime resident of Ko‘olaupoko, and a former native plant conservationist and resource management coordinator with the O‘ahu Army Natural Resources Program in the Wai‘anae and Ko‘olau ranges) as a full-time kahu of Kawainui whose current assignment is to direct cultural education efforts, service learning projects, and ‘āina reclamation activities at Ulupō.
In his year-and-a-half tenure as Pāku‘i Hou (the original Pāku‘i was the pond keeper of Kawainui in the days of old), Kaleo has instructed hundreds of Ko‘olaupoko’s elementary, intermediate, and high school students at Ulupō, Wai‘auia, and Hāmākua; he leads monthly first-Sunday and second-Saturday Ulupō workdays sponsored by the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and ‘Ahahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi; and he has had a major hand in the clearing of invasive trees and the re-opening of more than a dozen lo‘i kalo on the Kūkanono slopes of the heiau.
Kaleo’s work and its larger Hika‘alani context can be found in more detail at the Hika‘alani facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hikaalani96734/timeline) and Hika‘alani website (http://hikaalani.website/index.html). We offer the summary above in order to reiterate below what we think are two obvious points that are regularly and perhaps willfully ignored by many of the opponents to the Kawainui Master Plan.
First: There is not a hint of commercial activity in our Kawainui efforts and proposals; we have no intention, now or ever, of selling stuff, of accommodating “thousands” of tourists, or of running a Kawainui Disneyland and Polynesian Cultural Center. We are at Kawainui to nurture the natives and battle the invasives; it is our ‘āina and ancestor; it is not our money machine.
Second: We need permanent presence if we are to succeed at restoring Kawainui and if we are going to ensure the sanctity of what we have restored. Kaleo currently works out of the back of his truck; he and those he serves are itinerant, drive-up and drive-away participants. He ought to have facilities that are commensurate with his mission, at the very least: a sheltered meeting area, a native plant nursery, a secure tool shed, and most definitely a toilet, sink, and hose bib. He will tell you, and we can confirm through first-hand observation, that the more he and his service-learners are there, the less abused the place becomes. We need to encourage this capacity for vigilance; Kaleo is, in fact, on the front-line of defense against the incursions that our critics would attribute to our own presence.
The same principles – facility commensurate with mission, increased capacity for vigilance – hold true for the proposed learning center at Wai‘auia. If we are to teach, study, and practice the highest expressions of our language and practical arts; if we are to properly care for and protect the bones of our ancestors; then we need more than an open-sided, gravel-floored hut to which, in good weather and daylight hours, we can drive, unpack, do “our thing,” and, when pau, pack up again. We envision a marae, not a base camp.
Marae, as we understand it, refers to a sacred enclosure that consists of an open, ceremonial space (marae ākea) and a cluster of hale that serves the cultural needs of the kānaka honua (native people) of that place. The largest hale at a marae is meant to gather its people in the embrace of their ancestors; it is, in fact, a physical manifestation of those ancestors. The smaller, auxiliary spaces (sometimes attached to the hale nui, sometimes free-standing) include cooking, instructional, caretaker, and restroom facilities. Often, but not always – a marae is also home to a pā ilina or urupā, a burial ground.
A marae, as we understand it, is defined by place and presence. A marae is a place designed by its people to bind its people to who they are. It is a place of refuge, continuity, and regeneration for these people. It is a place where they are most uncompromisingly present. Their marae is central to their cultural identity, especially when their identity is threatened by those who would discredit and marginalize them. It cannot be a marae if it is defined for them by others. Nor can it be a marae if its use is regulated for them by others.
Marae is a Maori word. Its specific Hawaiian language equivalent is malae (a cleared space), but its more accurate connotative equivalents include pu‘uhonua (place of refuge), kīpuka (oasis of continuity in a landscape of change), and piko (center, nexus, connection point). We envision each of the proposed Hawaiian educating/sharing/practicing centers at Kawainui – the culture complex below the transfer station, the canoe facility below Kalāheo School, the center for excellence at Wai‘auia, and the garden-temple at Ulupō – as marae, pu‘uhonua, kīpuka, and piko, each with its own cluster of hard and soft spaces, each facing and serving the largest and most inspiring of our marae ākea: Kawainui itself. Together these places of regeneration embrace us, and we them, and allow for the fullest expression and transmission of who we are.
The modified Draft Kawainui-Hāmākua Complex Master Plan and EISPN of September 2016 – though not a complete expression of our desire for a permanent and thriving Hawaiian cultural presence at Kawainui – was indeed produced with Hawaiian community input, does accommodate our vision of a “permanent, thriving presence,” does credit us with leadership and integrity, and definitely gives us the opportunity to pursue our vision in our own generation. For this we are most grateful.
We look forward to further communication, and we ask that we be included in the EIS process as a “consulted party.”
‘O au nō me ka haʻahaʻa,
Tanya Pi‘ilani Alston
cc: Ms. Marigold Zoll, Oahu Forestry and Wildlife Manager, DOFAW
HHF Planners
733 Bishop Street, Suite 2590
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Ronald A. Sato, Senior Associate
Aloha Mr. Sato,
The board of directors of Hika‘alani would like to express its ongoing and unanimous support for the Draft Kawainui-Hāmākua Complex Master Plan as released in the EISPN of September 2016.
We are a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of land, culture, and identity at Kawainui. We are educators, scholars, and practitioners of Hawaiian culture with deep-rooted ties to our Kailua home. As such, we are especially appreciative of the plan’s continued, cool-headed recognition of the critical role that a permanent Hawaiian cultural presence must play in the stewardship of Kawainui if the now much-degraded marsh is to become, again, the thriving, life-giving piko of our ahupua‘a.
We have begun to put actions to our words by hiring Kaleomanu‘iwa Wong (one of the new generation of navigator-captains of the Hōkūle‘a, a fluent speaker of the Hawaiian language, a gifted orator, a lifetime resident of Ko‘olaupoko, and a former native plant conservationist and resource management coordinator with the O‘ahu Army Natural Resources Program in the Wai‘anae and Ko‘olau ranges) as a full-time kahu of Kawainui whose current assignment is to direct cultural education efforts, service learning projects, and ‘āina reclamation activities at Ulupō.
In his year-and-a-half tenure as Pāku‘i Hou (the original Pāku‘i was the pond keeper of Kawainui in the days of old), Kaleo has instructed hundreds of Ko‘olaupoko’s elementary, intermediate, and high school students at Ulupō, Wai‘auia, and Hāmākua; he leads monthly first-Sunday and second-Saturday Ulupō workdays sponsored by the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and ‘Ahahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi; and he has had a major hand in the clearing of invasive trees and the re-opening of more than a dozen lo‘i kalo on the Kūkanono slopes of the heiau.
Kaleo’s work and its larger Hika‘alani context can be found in more detail at the Hika‘alani facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hikaalani96734/timeline) and Hika‘alani website (http://hikaalani.website/index.html). We offer the summary above in order to reiterate below what we think are two obvious points that are regularly and perhaps willfully ignored by many of the opponents to the Kawainui Master Plan.
First: There is not a hint of commercial activity in our Kawainui efforts and proposals; we have no intention, now or ever, of selling stuff, of accommodating “thousands” of tourists, or of running a Kawainui Disneyland and Polynesian Cultural Center. We are at Kawainui to nurture the natives and battle the invasives; it is our ‘āina and ancestor; it is not our money machine.
Second: We need permanent presence if we are to succeed at restoring Kawainui and if we are going to ensure the sanctity of what we have restored. Kaleo currently works out of the back of his truck; he and those he serves are itinerant, drive-up and drive-away participants. He ought to have facilities that are commensurate with his mission, at the very least: a sheltered meeting area, a native plant nursery, a secure tool shed, and most definitely a toilet, sink, and hose bib. He will tell you, and we can confirm through first-hand observation, that the more he and his service-learners are there, the less abused the place becomes. We need to encourage this capacity for vigilance; Kaleo is, in fact, on the front-line of defense against the incursions that our critics would attribute to our own presence.
The same principles – facility commensurate with mission, increased capacity for vigilance – hold true for the proposed learning center at Wai‘auia. If we are to teach, study, and practice the highest expressions of our language and practical arts; if we are to properly care for and protect the bones of our ancestors; then we need more than an open-sided, gravel-floored hut to which, in good weather and daylight hours, we can drive, unpack, do “our thing,” and, when pau, pack up again. We envision a marae, not a base camp.
Marae, as we understand it, refers to a sacred enclosure that consists of an open, ceremonial space (marae ākea) and a cluster of hale that serves the cultural needs of the kānaka honua (native people) of that place. The largest hale at a marae is meant to gather its people in the embrace of their ancestors; it is, in fact, a physical manifestation of those ancestors. The smaller, auxiliary spaces (sometimes attached to the hale nui, sometimes free-standing) include cooking, instructional, caretaker, and restroom facilities. Often, but not always – a marae is also home to a pā ilina or urupā, a burial ground.
A marae, as we understand it, is defined by place and presence. A marae is a place designed by its people to bind its people to who they are. It is a place of refuge, continuity, and regeneration for these people. It is a place where they are most uncompromisingly present. Their marae is central to their cultural identity, especially when their identity is threatened by those who would discredit and marginalize them. It cannot be a marae if it is defined for them by others. Nor can it be a marae if its use is regulated for them by others.
Marae is a Maori word. Its specific Hawaiian language equivalent is malae (a cleared space), but its more accurate connotative equivalents include pu‘uhonua (place of refuge), kīpuka (oasis of continuity in a landscape of change), and piko (center, nexus, connection point). We envision each of the proposed Hawaiian educating/sharing/practicing centers at Kawainui – the culture complex below the transfer station, the canoe facility below Kalāheo School, the center for excellence at Wai‘auia, and the garden-temple at Ulupō – as marae, pu‘uhonua, kīpuka, and piko, each with its own cluster of hard and soft spaces, each facing and serving the largest and most inspiring of our marae ākea: Kawainui itself. Together these places of regeneration embrace us, and we them, and allow for the fullest expression and transmission of who we are.
The modified Draft Kawainui-Hāmākua Complex Master Plan and EISPN of September 2016 – though not a complete expression of our desire for a permanent and thriving Hawaiian cultural presence at Kawainui – was indeed produced with Hawaiian community input, does accommodate our vision of a “permanent, thriving presence,” does credit us with leadership and integrity, and definitely gives us the opportunity to pursue our vision in our own generation. For this we are most grateful.
We look forward to further communication, and we ask that we be included in the EIS process as a “consulted party.”
‘O au nō me ka haʻahaʻa,
Tanya Pi‘ilani Alston
cc: Ms. Marigold Zoll, Oahu Forestry and Wildlife Manager, DOFAW
